Since Governor Phil Murphy took office, medical marijuana in the Garden State has expanded beautifully. With the addition of qualifying conditions and easier access to medicine came bigger dispensaries — and the biggest of all is quite the showboat. With its humble beginnings in what was once a T-shirt shop, Curaleaf cannabis dispensary is now the biggest on all of the East Coast.
With 6,150-square-feet of space to work with, the newly revamped location can serve up to 1,000 patients a day, which is a very good thing for medical cannabis users in the general area and even beyond. The dispensary is located just 10 miles south of Philly in West Jersey and is accessible to many New Jerseyans.
Curaleaf has locations across the East Coast and their website states that they, “are a non-profit company in the business of symptom relief. Our mission is to help relieve the pain and suffering that patients with serious diseases experience and we are well on the road to achieving that.”
Already, 21,000 New Jersey residents have registered for the medical cannabis program, 5,000 of whom joined in the last year. Curaleaf served well over 6,000 patients in 2017 and 2018 is looking like a busy year for the giant new medicinal facility.
With new medical cannabis rules in place, Curaleaf’s relocation and expansion is likely just the tip of the iceberg for New Jersey, which is growing its cannabis program at a steady clip. “Our expansion into a larger dispensary mirrors not only Curaleaf’s growth but also the progression of medical marijuana access within the state,” George Schidlovsky, Curaleaf New Jersey’s president, said in a statement.
Two of the additional qualifying conditions under Murphy’s leadership are anxiety and chronic pain, both of which are primary reasons to obtain cannabis. Because they are now on the list of approved ailments, there is bound to be more and more people signing up for the program, making large dispensaries with great selections a necessity.
For example, Keith Chase, 62, is a patient who has visited the facility. “I love it. It’s fantastic,” he said, “It looks like a dispensary in Colorado — big and clean. They just need more product.” Chase said he utilizes cannabis because it keeps him off of the addictive opioids that had him in their grips for years due to a back injury.
